Peter Richards, Horn (Associate)

Peter Richards has been playing with the COE since 1982 and has been the regular 4th horn ever since. He counts it a huge privilege to have been playing with the greatest Chamber Orchestra in the world for his whole professional career.

He was born in Buckinghamshire, UK in 1959. Five years singing as a choirboy at Westminster Abbey, while studying Horn, Piano and composition, propelled him into a varied life of music. Subsequently during his time at Uppingham School, he was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for 3 years and played a lot of Jazz Piano. This was followed by 5 years at the RNCM Manchester studying horn under Ifor James, Michael Purton and James Brown, and Piano with George Hadjinikos, during which time he toured with the ECYO (now EYO) and began working professionally.

In great demand as a freelance player with orchestras including Royal Northern Sinfonia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Opera North and Manchester Camerata, Peter is also passionate about teaching both Horn and Piano and still manages to devote much time to composing, arranging and playing an eclectic mix of music on the Piano.

He plays Horn and Piano in ‘Epiphany’, a diverse group of Christian musicians committed to chamber music performance and improvisation in all sorts of unusual settings. Peter performs as a duo partner with his violinist wife Shirley.

Outside of music he is an enthusiastic swimmer and regularly attends Poynton Christian Fellowship.